T-minus five minutes to Ditto Theatre Company’s charming production of Rocket Girl at the Underbelly Cowgate (Iron Belly), two children launch themselves into a world of make-believe in which their colourful umbrellas are used as walking sticks, fencing swords and, as a fitting curtain call, a shepherd’s hook to yank the neck of the dimmest star. At no point did their sex define who played what and why.

A spirit of playful innocence which extends to the six-strong ensemble of professional make-believers as they utilise puppetry and props, storytelling and movement, to explore how gender stereotyping limits our potential through the tale of an aspiring astronaut Maisie Robinson who after witnessing Neil Armstrong land on the moon asks her hard-working but attentive father, “Why are there no girl astronauts?”

Just when the dot to dot of her dreams begin to resemble an attainable reality, fate deals her a bad hand and she is yanked shepherd’s hook-like from her home to live with a stern aunt who along with a dismissive teacher and literal hat-trick of bullies (a prime example of how a minimum of props and an economy of movement can suggest so much so simply) advocate a diet of embroidery and baking over science and maths.

What’s a girl to do? Box up her hopes and dreams like outgrown toys and swap them for the unrewarding world of work as epitomised by her father’s long hours of hard toil down a dark pit? Or take comfort from a newfound friend who echoes her father’s words of encouragement: “You can be anything you want to be?”

Ditto, who were established in 2016 by graduates from East 15 Acting School’s BA Physical Theatre course, were last year commissioned by the National Theatre of Scotland to devise a new piece of work as part of its biennial Exchange festival. And Rocket Girl, which was shortlisted for the prestigious Edinburgh Untapped award (in association with New Diorama and Underbelly), is the bountiful fruit of their labour. The success of which proves that their star, like Maisie’s rocket, is shining bright and rising fast.

Peter Callaghan
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